Google’s story over the last two decades has been a tale as old as time: enshittification for growth. The once-beloved startup—with its unofficial “Don’t Be Evil” motto—has instead become a major Internet monopolist, as a federal judge ruled on Monday, dominating the market for online search. Google is also well-known for its data-harvesting practices, for constantly killing off products, and for facilitating the rise of brain-cell-destroying YouTubers who make me Fear for Today’s Youth. (Maybe that last one is just me?)
Google’s rapid rise from “scrappy search engine with doodles” to “dystopic mega-corporation” has been remarkable in many ways, especially when you consider just how much goodwill the company squandered so quickly. Along the way, though, Google has achieved one unexpected result: In a divided America, it offers just about everyone something to hate.
Here are just a few of the players hating Google today.
Yeah I’m with you there, the pixel camera app is a must for me too. What I love about GrapheneOS is how easy it is to block permissions. So with google pixel camera app, no network and no location permissions means that it cannot report back to google unless I allow it to. It’s a safe way to use the odd google app in a limited way when you need to. The other google app I use is the g-keyboard, because it is so much better in some ways. But again it is very restricted and I turned off the features I don’t want, like voice typing.